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Nature 435, 895-897 (16 June 2005) | doi:10.1038/435895a; Published online 15 June 2005

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Cell biology:  Powerful curves

L. Mahadevan1 & T. J. Mitchison1

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A cell's contents are organized by a scaffolding of microtubules. These long, thin polymers continuously grow and shrink, and the structures of two forms of the constituent protein provide clues to how this occurs.

Microtubules are long polymers of the protein tubulin that form a network within cells to help arrange the cell components and provide transport tracks for motor proteins. Rather than being static permanent structures, microtubules continuously grow and shrink through the polymerization and depolymerization of tubulin.

  1. L. Mahadevan and T. J. Mitchison are in the Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02115, and L. Mahadevan is also in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.

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